VETERAN TAG Find A Grave created the Veteran tag so members could identify and/or search for people who served in the military. However, using the word veteran for this purpose ignited the debate of "What is a veteran?" Some countries do not consider those who died in service (aka war dead) as veterans, so some members feel the Veteran tag should not be used on war dead memorials. But the definition of veteran is not the point here. The Veteran tag is just a search tool! Using it on a memorial just means the person served in the military. Not using the Veteran tag for war dead means they won't come up in a search of those who served. But they did serve and they paid the ultimate price. To get the best results on Find A Grave, one should use the tools in the way they are intended.

PHOTO REQUESTS Someone once asked me "Why do you submit so many photo requests?" Here's why ...
The mission of Find A Grave is "to find, record and present final disposition information as a virtual cemetery experience." Its not about reproducing long lists of deceased people with unknown disposition. Its not about how many photos or newspaper clippings you can add. Its not about adding census records, marriage records, military records or obituaries. Its not even about linking all the family members, although the linking feature is a great perk! Its about final disposition. Period. A memorial might have only a name, dates and location (usually a cemetery but sometimes a National Monument site), and it would fulfill the Find A Grave mandate. A photo brings it all together; it's the visual representation of the final disposition. So if you see a memorial without a photo of the gravestone, cenotaph stone or memorial panel - go ahead, request one. Doing so will help others and you'll be using the site in the way it is intended.

VETERAN TAG Find A Grave created the Veteran tag so members could identify and/or search for people who served in the military. However, using the word veteran for this purpose ignited the debate of "What is a veteran?" Some countries do not consider those who died in service (aka war dead) as veterans, so some members feel the Veteran tag should not be used on war dead memorials. But the definition of veteran is not the point here. The Veteran tag is just a search tool! Using it on a memorial just means the person served in the military. Not using the Veteran tag for war dead means they won't come up in a search of those who served. But they did serve and they paid the ultimate price. To get the best results on Find A Grave, one should use the tools in the way they are intended.

PHOTO REQUESTS Someone once asked me "Why do you submit so many photo requests?" Here's why ...
The mission of Find A Grave is "to find, record and present final disposition information as a virtual cemetery experience." Its not about reproducing long lists of deceased people with unknown disposition. Its not about how many photos or newspaper clippings you can add. Its not about adding census records, marriage records, military records or obituaries. Its not even about linking all the family members, although the linking feature is a great perk! Its about final disposition. Period. A memorial might have only a name, dates and location (usually a cemetery but sometimes a National Monument site), and it would fulfill the Find A Grave mandate. A photo brings it all together; it's the visual representation of the final disposition. So if you see a memorial without a photo of the gravestone, cenotaph stone or memorial panel - go ahead, request one. Doing so will help others and you'll be using the site in the way it is intended.